EVERYBODY SEES THINGS THROUGH THEIR OWN EYES, SOUL AND MIND. WHETHER ITS THE LIFE OF ART, DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY OR JUST LIFE ITSELF. EVERYBODY IS UNIQUE, THEREFORE HAVE THEIR OWN VIEW. THEIR OWN INTERPRETATION, THEIR OWN THOUGHT AND PERSPECTIVE. THIS IS MY PERSPECTIVE, THE WAY I SEE THINGS. WELCOME TO THE WORLD AS I SEE IT!!

How did the company begin? Soap Creative began with 3 guys sharing the corner of an office in 2002 with a 160GB networked HD. Since then it has grown into a company of over 50 people spread across two countries. With L.A. opening up in 2008 to further commit to their growing U.S. client base.

How many staff members are employed there? There is over 50 staff members employed at Soap Creative.

What do they specialise in? Soap Creative specialise in the designing and building of websites and games, content social media, widgets, electronic direct mail, standard and rich media, delivery innovative, high creative ad strategy-focused campaigns.

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? Soap Creative have an interesting way of setting themselves apart fro other design agencies. Each member has a soap-o-hero alter ego, which they get to choose and illustrate and place them on their business card. They say this is great for the client meetings and pitches as it creates a ‘tribe’ and creates unity among the staff. The culture of the soap-o-hero is extended throughout the entire office.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? Soap Creative has much strength; they are extremely good at designing and building games and 3D images. I believe it takes a lot of skill and time to be able to build video games and Soap Creative are very successful at that. I don’t know that this company has many weaknesses, if any at all. They are a very successful agency.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? The strengths for this business are that they offer ‘freebies’ and everybody loves freebies. I think they offer FREE business cards and stationary so that it gets their name out there. I guess the weakness is that they aren’t making as much money when they hand out FREE stuff, because they are not getting any money from the stuff they give away.

Large publishing companies

Harper Collins

How did the company begin? Unknown

How many staff members are employed there? Unknown

What do they specialise in? They’re a major publishing company so they publish books, etc. Permissions, bookseller and retailer ordering, educator and librarian resources, and subsidiary rights.

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? Harper Collins is a major publishing company; they are very well sought after.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? Because they are a very sought after company, they are very popular and wealthy. They are a strong business; they are very specific with the books they choose to publish, which is guess could also be a weakness because they aren’t getting as much business. Though a company like this doesn’t need too much business when they are already wealthy and considered high class as a publishing house.

Small publishing companies

Random House

How did the company begin? Random House was founded by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer in 1927, two years after they purchased the Modern Library, which published reprints of classic literature. Since then Random House has acquired a number of publishing companies and been bought by others in turn -- most recently by Bertelsmann.

How many staff members are employed there? Unknown

What do they specialise in? Publishing books, etc.

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? Random House is a publishing house, it

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? This company is a well sought after company and is considered a high class/trustworthy company when it comes to publishing, and this is strength. Their weakness is most likely the fact that they only do publishing, and not any other services. But I guess that’s what comes with being a publishing house.

Freelancers

Sprowt Graphic Design

How did the company begin? Amber Hopwood started her small freelance business by doing graphic design through freelance. She has 6 years of experience in the industry.

How many staff members are employed there? There is only one employee as it’s a freelance graphic design job.

What do they specialise in? Sprowt specialises in corporate identity and branding services.

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? Sprowt sets itself apart from other companies/agencies because it is a freelance company, which is only run by one person. Amber Hopwood is the founder/creator of this freelance business, putting herself out there in a very professional manner so that she is perceived as ‘reliable, successful and professional’ to her clients. Sprowt’s work is clean, tight, aesthetically pleasing and well presented.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? I think Sprowt’s strengths are that she has the ability to create aesthetically pleasing designs for her clients, as a freelancer I think she is very successful. Her weaknesses may be that she isn’t really well known

Online-based design business

Salsa Internet

How did the company begin? Salsa Internet was formed in 2003 by a group of 3 web development professionals who were sick of seeing companies, both small and large, being overcharges for web solutions and often poorly serviced by their web development suppliers.

How many staff members are employed there? 16

What do they specialise in? They consider themselves to be a full service web agency. Web design, development and e-commerce, and online strategy.

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? This company is different from other companies because there business is about helping out their clients at a reasonable cost, giving great service.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? I think the fact that they want to help their clients achieve their goals and solve their client’s problems is strength, as other companies may only care about the money side of things. Some agencies might do a crappy job and still have to be paid for it, whereas Salsa is here to provide great service, which comes at a great price.

Web design businesses offering graphic design as a secondary skill

Diop Design

How did the company begin? Unknown

How many staff members are employed there? Unknown

What do they specialise in? Website design, website upgrades, flash animation design, online shops, website design brief, content management, domain names/hosting. Graphic design services: logo design, logo design brief, stationary, flyers, and posters. ‘At Diop Design we love small businesses - the range and variety is great because it keeps us creatively challenged. Every new client has a unique selling point that makes them successful and we enjoy relating that usp in our designs and strategies.’

What sets them apart from other agencies/companies? They mainly focus on web design and flash animation, but also supply graphic design services.

What do you think their strengths and weaknesses as a business are? I think all their services count as strengths, they are a small business that focus on web design but also have the ability to do graphic design jobs.